Jake's Blog

Well, to say that today was nerve-racking and stressful would be a bit of an understatement. As I was responsible for the planning and ultimate implementation of our group’s daily goals and objectives, I was excited to finally lead a day camp but also nervous about completing the necessary tasks so our students would be prepared for Saturday’s symposium. Even though we have maintained productivity over the past four days through engaging and meaningful activities, because of the limited time and the amount of material we wished to cover, each day seemed increasingly crunched for time. Today was of no exception – I was originally hopeful that we would be able to cover a huge amount of ground while still allowing for presentation rehearsals. However, because of awesome discussions of yesterday’s reflections and the development of conclusions based on the collected evidence, we had to be flexible in order to make the most of the remaining time.

To begin the day with a strong start, we met the students at the bus and immediately took them to the cross-quad to “graffiti” a previously prepared “canvas” on one of the tunnel walls. The students were asked to paint evidence of science that they had experienced over the past week in camp. The students were excited to have the opportunity to express themselves in such a medium and “make their mark” as a part of the GRS camp experience. From depictions of the lake and plated bacteria to the pH scale and the graphs we produced as a group, our students loved the activity and the opportunity to experience a different incarnation of scientific thinking.

After our awesome icebreaker, we returned to Dewey Hall and began work on drawing conclusions. We first revisited the student’s reflections from Thursday which focused on their interpretations of the research question and the evidence the students had collected. We worked with the students to compile a list of statements which summarized the ideas that the students had included in their individual conclusions as a means of working toward a single conclusive statement. With the help of all our group members, we worked one-0n-one with the students to examine the statements and develop conclusions using the evidence collected through their investigation. We also used this opportunity to revisit our graphs and discuss how certain representations can be misleading (as can be seen below):

Because of the cooperative work in the “Drawing and Revising Conclusions” activity, the students were more than prepared to compile all of the components of inquiry that have experienced as part of the camp into a presentation for the symposium. Even though the activity took longer than expected, I felt that it was necessary and vital to the students’ understanding of the process of authentic inquiry-based science and for their feelings of ownership and engagement in their experiences over the past five days.

We next broke the students up into two groups to work on the poster and Keynote presentation for Saturday’s symposium. By “dividing and conquering” we were best able to utilize the time available as well as focus on the individual strengths of our students so that they could best contribute to the overall goal. While we did have some issues with keeping certain students engaged for various reasons, in general I thought that we were able to maintain productivity and complete the majority of the two tasks. While the students were working with Carli, Brian, Ashley, and me, Lisa took them out one at a time to ask them various questions about their camp experience as a means of gaining some insight in their feelings about the past five days. It is our hope that the results of these surveys will aid in the continued success of the camp and the improvement of our individual teaching styles.

After a short break, we took the students to Hubbell Auditorium to conduct “dry-runs” of the presentation. This allowed the students to become familiar with both the Keynote presentation and the space itself as a means of reducing any nervousness that might affect their “performance” tomorrow.

As a means of reflection, we asked the students to look back over the past five days and answer the following questions:

• How are you feeling about tomorrow? Do you have any questions about your presentation?
• What was your favorite part about your camp experience?
• Was there something you wish you could have had the opportunity to further investigate? If so, what would it be?
• If you could change anything about the camp for future participants, what would it be?
• Since Monday, how has your view of science changed? Do you see yourself as a scientist now?

Overall, we had a great experience with our students. This has been an amazing learning experience for everyone (I would hope!) and has provided valuable insight into inquiry-based learning and how it’s role in science is crucial to allow for increased comprehension and skill building. I can’t wait to continue with experience like this in preparation for my career as an educator.

GENERAL OVERVIEW OF JAKE’S LESSON PLANS FOR DAY 5

• Students will continue to develop an argument based in evidence
  • Students will draw conclusions from collected and analyzed evidence
    • Building on previous discussions and blogging activity from Thursday, students will refine conclusions and make hypotheses for further tests
• Students will design an interactive presentation of their argument and evidence
  • Students will compile relevant data and representations to report findings to all participants
  • Students will utilize available resources and technologies to enhance presentation
    • Poster – Carli, Brian
    • Keynote – Ashley, Jake, Lisa
  • Students will rehearse their presentation in preparation for Saturday’s symposium
    • Students will share out about components of presentation
    • rehearse, reflect, rehearse
    • Availability of Hubbel?
• Students will reflect on their camp experience and authentic inquiry-based science
  • Students will produce a concept map outlining the events of the week and creating a connection to authentic inquiry-based science
    • Produce concept map foundation (INQUIRY, M-F, Future)
    • Include in poster
  • Students will hypothesize possible changes which could be made to improve water ecology at Charlotte Beach
  • Students will provide feedback on positive and negative attributes of the Get Real! Science Environmental Action Camp

1. Icebreaker
   1. Painting the tunnel – Evidence of science you’ve experienced this week
2. Drawing and Refining Conclusions
   1. Students will share their blog posts from Thursday (hook up computer to SMARTBoard)
   2. Present compiled conclusion statement – ask student input
   3. What could we test to gain more insight?
      1. i.      Test more pH’s
      2. ii.      Does the presence of algae alter the pH of Lake Ontario?
      3. iii.      Does the presence of algae affect bacterial levels in Lake Ontario?
   4. What could have been done to improve our experiment?
3. Presentation Development
   1. Poster and Keynote Presentation
   2. Share out about each part
   3. Rehearse, Reflect, and Rehearse
4. Break
   1. Short activity
   2. Working snack break?
5. Reflection
   1. Concept mapping
   2. Possible changes to improve water ecology at Charlotte
6. Temperature check – one-on-one

Today, while not without challenges, was, in my opinion, productive, energized, and engaging for everyone. In addition to revisiting the model and planning for the presentation, the students had the opportunity to explore some additional technologies as well as analyze data using inquiry-based discussions and Excel.

Our icebreaker for the day consisted of exploring Google Earth in preparation for Saturday’s presentation. The students were extremely excited about the program and enjoyed finding their homes, landmarks at the beach, and various locations around the world.

By using a low-risk introductory activity to graphing involving graphs from USA Today, we were able to present the students with the fundamentals of visual representations of data and how one should be somewhat skeptic of graphical representations as they can be, in some instances, deceiving.

After providing the students with some additional information about pH and its relevance to their study, we returned to graphing and guided the students through a brainstorming exercise to determine how they would like to represent their data for their presentation. After throwing out a variety of options, the students determined that a double line graph utilizing two y axes would best represent their data as well as provide a visual guide to any relationship that might exist between pH, bacterial colong count, and sample site.

Our break consisted of a great activity on the quad which allowed the students to both get up and about and also connect with us. The weather was perfect and we were able to get out of our workspace and move around as well as let the students take a break from the amazing thinking they were doing before the break. Even though they were engaged, interested, and contributing, we could tell they were ready for a break from the material and Carli’s activity was perfect!

After our break we completed work on our graphs and then used them to further relate our findings to our model and researc questions. We again allowed our students to utilize blogging to reflect on the day as well as address their question. We asked them to revisit their original question (How does pH affect algae and bacteria at Charlotte Beach?) and what conclusions they could draw from it. We can hopefully build upon these tomorrow as we construct the presentation.

I believe that day was a bit more organized and even though we had to adjust and cut some parts short because of a lack of time and unforeseen circumstances with space issues, we were able to accomplish our goals for the day and remain essentially on track for the presentation. In addition, I think that the students were extremely engaged and interested in all of our activities. I am looking forward to tomorrow as I am leading the activities for the day – hopefully all goes well and we are prepared for Saturday!

Today’s work with the students presented interesting and, to some extent unexpected, challenges. After two great days at the beach, we had to ensure that our students remained engaged throughout the time in the classroom as well as maintaining efficiency to stay on track with our goals. We took the opportunity today to finishing data collection through colony counting and compiling all observations and data from the beach as well as present a variety of technologies (blogging, uploading video and pictures, and Excel) and allow the students to utilize the technologies in the context of our project.

The students again worked well together to compile data from all sites sampled at the beach and quickly mastered efficient and thorough colony counting. In addition, they utilized the opportunity to ask a variety of questions regarding science, college, and our project. We were also able to combine the plates and the students’ existing model to provide a visual representation of bacterial growth at Charlotte, allowing the students to gain a better vision of what their data looked like in terms of the beach and their question. We also stressed the importance of water observations as data and how it was vital to the understand of their model and resolving their question.

After working in the lab, we returned to Dewey to utilize available technology as an introduction to data analysis. The students had the opportunity to break into groups and become familiar with uploading pictures and videos and how Excel can be used to create visual representations of data.

We then allowed the students the opportunity to work with blogs and create posts as a means of reflection for the day. The students thoroughly enjoyed working with the technology and were looking forward to exploring it further on subsequent days of camp.

While we were able to finish data collection and compile all the necessary information for the presentation, I believe that a lack of communication led to some wasted time and inefficient transitions and, in turn, resulted in a lack of energy. Overall, I felt that after the productivity in the lab, the rest of the day seemed a bit disorganized and random. However, I think that the students still felt engaged in the activities and left with a sense of accomplishment. Hopefully we can overcome the day’s challenges and gear up our productivity so we can stay on schedule to be prepared for Saturday’s symposium.

Building on the successes of yesterday, we as a group were ready and raring to go this morning at the beach. We had all five of our students today (Josh was unable to attend yesterday) and they got right to work developing a protocol for investigation based on their model from yesterday. The students’ ability to recognize changes that should be made to their model as well as suggest ways to improve the model for efficient yet thorough investigation was awesome to observe.

After developing a protocol for data collection (consisting of sampling six sites), the students split into two groups to complete sampling – 3 of our students used a boat provided by the Horizons program to collect water samples and the remaining data were collected by the other two students walking at the shoreline. All of the students remarked that they enjoyed the experience and “felt like scientists.”

After all 6 six sites had been sampled (each site consisted of three water samples), the students learned about the logistics of plating using the Coliscan easygel plates and successfully prepared their 18 samples for incubation.

Following plating, the students were given the opportunity to reflect on the day’s activities and how these related to what the students had accomplished on Monday. In addition, the students discussed their experiences so far with the group leaders, allowing us to assess their growth and gauge their contributions to the camp.

So far, I believe that the camp is going extremely well! The students are engaged and seem very interested and involved in the authentic inquiry implemented into the program. Through a great introduction activity for the day, Brian, the day’s leader, facilitated a discussion about the components of inquiry which we had already used and those to come in the days ahead. In this way, we feel that the students will take away not only an appreciation of science but also the realization that the problem solving and critical thinking skills utilized for the successful execution of their camp project can be applied to any discipline.

Today’s plusses included amazing teamwork among our students, efficient data collection and plating, and engaging activities which lead to enthusiastic participation. While necessary, we discussed that we would have preferred not to split the group up for data collection. Not only did this disrupt our sense of continuity and organization, we believe that our group works well together and we would like them to experience camp as a conhesive unit so as to allow for effective and meaningful reflection for all.

As we continue through data analysis, organization, drawing conclusions and presentation design, it is our hope that our students will grow even more as learners and thinkers.

Today was the first day of this year’s Get Real! Science Environmental Action Camp and our group couldn’t have asked for better students! After the Horizons and YMCA students arrived at the beach and we met them at the bus, we got right to work observing conditions in Lake Ontario, along the pier, and on the beach itself. Based on their very astute observations, Hadaree, Juan, Raeshawn, and Shania were able to organize their thoughts, develop scientific questions regarding beach ecology, and compose an overall investigation for their project. The students noticed high concentrations of algae on the beach near and along the pier and hypothesized that pH may affect both the levels of algae and bacteria at different locations. Using both their hypothesis and question, the students then set to construct a model as a foundation for the implementation of their tests.

DAY 1 GOALS:

1. Students will observe and research conditions at Charlotte Beach in order to gain an understanding of beach conditions that will help develop their investigative question.
2. Students will develop a testable scientific question based on observations
3. Students will construct a model which addresses factors that contribute to beach ecology to investigate their question
4. Students will reflect on the day and past experiences

The students were extremely engaged and seemed interested and excited by the activities we had planned to introduce them to inquiry-based science education. Their willingness to participate wholeheartedly was not only motivating for us as group leaders but also provided a great basis for team building and collaboration which I hope will continue through to presentations on Saturday.

Our group’s members (Ashley, Brian, Carli, Lisa, and I) were all psyched to have the opportunity to work with kids and put our planned goals and objectives into practice. It was amazing to see our plans in action and work to inspire us for further work with our kids.

Overall, we all thought that the day went amazingly well. Our students’ participation, our ability to facilitate discussion, and the fulfillment of our goals and objectives for the day were all plusses which we discussed. However, we believe that we need to better utilize our students’ strengths so they can feel even more engaged in the activities as well as remain conscious of the balance necessary while students are contributing to discussion.

We feel that each day will be a unique and useful learning experience as we strive to guide our students toward a better appreciation of inquiry-based science education. While each day will be met with some sense of trepidation and nervousness, I believe that this will serve as an amazing experience as we work toward become effective science educators.

Yesterday, in preparation for our Get Real! Science Environmental Action Camp, our cohort traveled to the Harley School to meet with students participating in this summer’s Horizon program and who will be a part of our camp group next week. While there, we worked in our groups to assess prior knowledge of various aspects of scientific inquiry and water ecology. Our group focused on the development of testable scientific questions. Given a discrepant event (Elephant Toothpaste – as seen at www.kentchemistry.com), we asked students to write down any questions they might have based on their observations. We then discussed various questions with them and helped them to determine the difference between testable and “untestable” questions. Lastly, we had the opportunity to help our students hypothesize methods to test various questions they had regarding the demonstration. It is our hope that the students will be able to reflect on this experience when they are asked to develop testable scientific questions for their beach studies. Our developed goals and objectives for the concept interview are below:

GOAL

• Students will gain an appreciation for scientific questions and their use in investigations.

OBJECTIVES:

• Given a discrepant event, students will pose question based on their observations
• Students will review and sort their questions as testable and “untestable.”
• Students will propose an investigative approach to explore a testable scientific question.

Overall we thought that our presentation went well but that certain aspects could be improved. While the demonstration was very engaging, it seemed that in each group of students one or two individuals would dominate the conversation. We will need to be sure to maintain a balanced conversation among the students in our groups for camp. In addition, we were very prepared and, as such, our transitions went very well. By dividing up responsibilities ahead of time and prepping for all five demonstrations before the students arrived, we were able to facilitate almost seamless transitions.

It is our hope that we can use the information we collected during our interviews for the betterment of the camp and to facilitate a great experience for all our students.

Today in EDU 486 Integrating Science and Technology, members of the class presented mini-professional development session regarding useful tools for the science classroom. In addition to my presentation regarding blogging (see below), information about Keynote (a Mac version of PowerPoint), palm pilots, Inspiration (a concept map building program), wikis, Google Earth (new and improved!), Vernier LabQuest probeware, iFlips and iMovie, and Voice Thread (an online community interaction tool) were presented. All the technologies were extremely interesting and provided great insight into the way curricula and instruction can be developed to enhance scientific literacy. It is my hope that I can use some (if not all) of these innovative tools in my future classroom to help my students engage in their educational experiences. If you have the opportunity to learn and use these technologies, definitely take full advantage of the experience!

Weblogging and Possible Uses in the Science Classroom

• Reflection
  • Educator reflection
    • What works, what doesn’t, and how can it be improved?
  • Student reflection
    • Reevaluation of misconceptions, conceptualization of the big picture, and recognition of connections
• Communication – Using the blog as a “take-home classroom”
  • Class discussions
    • Help build community among students as well as facilitate continued discussion about material after the bell rings
  • Group projects
    • Connect with students, communicate outside the classroom, share data and ideas, plan, reexamine, and change
  • Feedback and comments
    • Master anonymous page for feedback
    • Provide a space for students to give praise, constructive criticism, and suggestions
  • Updates from the classroom
    • What’s new
    • Changes to existing plans
    • Upcoming events
      • Classroom-wide
      • School-wide
      • Relevant outside events
    • Reminders regarding exams, projects, due dates
  • Lesson plan outlines
    • Provide students and parents with information about upcoming lessons
  • Project/test information
    • Provide a “Frequently Asked Questions” section for projects and tests to aide with questions which may come up after class
  • Teacher-Student-Parent communication
    • Allow parents to keep up-to-date with class goings-on
• Organizational tool
  • Electronic chronological record of classroom activities, assignments, progress, and accomplishments
    • Students can at their own leisure, look back on how far they and the class have come since the beginning of course
• Additional resources
  • Hyperlinks
    • Appropriate web sources
      • Animations
      • Articles
      • Background information
    • Relevant connections to their lives
  • Embedded material
    • Photos/images
    • Video and audio clips
  • Podcasts
• Assessment
  • Student participation
  • Before and after a given lesson and/or unit
  • Track growth and development in terms of scientific literacy
  • Observe individual contributions to class
• Ground rules for an effective blog (Brownstein, Erica and Klein, Robert. (2006). Blogs. Journal of College Science Teaching, 35(6), 18-22.)
  • Decide the purpose of the blog. Be specific.
  • Decide who will be the main author of the blog.
  • Give structure to the blog.
  • Determine institutional guidelines.
  • Teach students blog etiquette
  • Adapt the blog as needed.
  • Have fun!

From Brownstein, Erica and Klein, Robert. (2006). Blogs. Journal of College Science Teaching, 35(6), 18-22.

More ideas for possible use in future classrooms…

Today in Science – a way of connecting students with the historical relevance of science, one can provide a significant milestone which can allow students to reflect on the significance of the finding and relate it to subsequent advances

Current Events – provides students a connection between science and their everyday lives. By recognizing examples of science in life outside the classroom, students can begin to develop a greater appreciation for the sciences in general and the implications and power possible in the field and its discoveries.